Two days before nomination day, the Registrar of Societies said it did not recognise the central leadership of DAP, which could result in its Rocket symbol becoming illegal in the elections. DAP said it would use the PAS logo, a moon, to stand if the Election Commission does not recognise its logo. The few days after, PAS supporters were seen hanging DAP flags at their homes and stalls- an unimaginable phenomenon prior to this, as DAP was once seen by Malay Muslims as a Chinese chauvinistic party while PAS was once feared by the Chinese as a radical Islamist party. A bridge of friendship was formed in the face of hardship (Shah Alam, 21 April 2013)
Apr 27
Demi Rakyat (For the people), Shah Alam, April 20, 2013
"Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.
When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kisses you while explaining that this kiss doesn’t ‘mean anything’ because, much as he likes you, he is not interested in having a relationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back. Your daughter will have his sense of humor. Your son will have his eyes.
The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.
One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, don’t look at her skeptically after she tells you she thought the coat was perfect for you. Don’t hold it up and say it’s longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly even too warm. Your mother will be dead by spring. That coat will be the last gift she gave you. You will regret the small thing you didn’t say for the rest of your life.
Say thank you."
Louis Vuitton bag for the afterlife (Ipoh, Mar, 2013)
Mar 23
Mr Sagong Tasi, 82, outside his home. Against the harsh light, Mr Sagong stood unfazed, but his gaze tore away from the camera, as if a rebel and indignant. An unlikely activist, Mr Sagong is an Orang Asli- Malaysian aborigine that sued the government to stop them from forcibly taking his village to build a highway. He won after 15 years and his name was stamped in a landmark court decision. I interviewed Mr Sagong in January 2013 and this is what he told me- “I climbed seven flights of stairs to court for the past 15 years, but when I think of being able to come to my home, I think it’s well worth the effort.” - Dengkil, Malaysia, Jan 2013
Mar 22
Kerjasama anda amat dihargai (Your co-operation is much appreciated)- Kuala Lumpur, February 2013
"Growth can be slow and hard when you are groping alone. It quickens when you meet other photographers who have worked and thought intensely about their medium. You listen, you ask, and a phrase sticks in your memory like a barb. You see a photograph that blazes with new significance. Suddenly a way of working, dim till then, comes clear before you. You explore, and find a world opening."
- Aperture magazine manifesto, first issue published in 1952
Mar 22
In the past, I did not give much thought on keeping exhibition catalogues. To me, they were environmentally-unfriendly and just pieces of paper that will be thrown away after a few months. But now, I see the need to consciously accumulate these catalogues and whatever writings on exhibitions, articles etc on a particular photographer’s work. These bits of information, when pieced together, will form a micro-narrative of a certain space in time in a particular country, at a specific setting. I attended a talk on introduction to archiving by the Asian Art Archiving team based in Hong Kong, and was enlightened yet, dissatisfied with their responses on encouraging societies to archive the art movements in their respective communities. The ‘impulse’ to archive is nothing new in Malaysia, especially when artists, writers see the lack of “the other side of the story” being told by government-related agencies. But, the development has been slow and sporadic, partially because the art community in Malaysia did not institutionalise an independent art archiving body until recently. Why no one has thought of setting that up is anyone’s guess. I learnt recently that there is now indeed a Malaysia Art Archives newly set up since September 2012, a model built after IVAA in Yogyakarta. It will be interesting to see how sizeable the photography collection will be in the collection, given that photography has and still is, struggling to make its place as “art” not just in Malaysia, but also everywhere else. I left the talk with many questions, especially on the boundaries of independent archivers’ selection process, its autonomy in making history through compiling and narrating a certain social development in a country, its authority in challenging the conventions. I don’t have answers at the moment, but I like one statement that Mr Hamad Nassar of AAA said that independent archiving is about complicating the history, so that no one is too dependent on a single source. After all, to write history is to socially construct the future by telling them what the past is like, according to how they perceive it. And that alone is power, if not propaganda.
